Here's a rare one: Colorado Parks and Wildlife is actively asking you to go catch as many fish as you can at Hugo Ponds, because several of the ponds are about to be drained and the fish in them won't survive the process anyway. Per the announcement, the agency is basically putting out an open invitation to empty the water before the water gets emptied.

The ponds sit out on the eastern plains near the town of Hugo, a little over two hours east of Denver if you keep a steady pace on I-70. It's high plains country out there, wide open and windy, the kind of place where you can watch a storm build for an hour before it ever reaches you. Not the postcard Colorado everybody pictures, but it's some of my favorite fishing territory in the state. Warmwater ponds out east tend to be generous in a way the trout streams just aren't.

What's swimming in there is the usual plains pond roster: bluegill, bass, catfish, that sort of thing. Since the fish would otherwise be lost when the water drops, there's no catch-and-release guilt trip required here. Take fish home. Fill the cooler. That's the whole point, and it's not a window that stays open long. Once the drain starts, it starts.

A few practical notes if you go. You still need a valid Colorado fishing license, free-for-all doesn't mean license-free. Check the current regulations for the ponds before you head out, since bag and size limits can shift when an agency is trying to thin a fishery down. And bring gear you don't mind getting dusty. The shoreline access out there is walk-in stuff, no fancy piers.

Timing-wise, early September is a genuinely great window for this kind of trip. The worst of the plains heat is fading, the evenings get that first hint of fall, and the fish are still feeding aggressively before cooler water slows everything down. If you've been meaning to take a kid fishing, this is the excuse. Bluegill will keep a beginner's rod bent all afternoon, and nothing hooks a new angler faster than actually catching things.

But an invitation like this doesn't come around often, and it's usually born of logistics rather than opportunity. Draining ponds is maintenance work, silt removal, repairs, whatever it happens to be this time. The silver lining is still real fish for real people at no cost beyond a license and a tank of gas. Colorado grew me, and I'll always argue the eastern half of the state is underrated precisely because everyone photographing mountains forgets it exists.

If you go, tell me how you did. I want to know if the catfish are cooperating before somebody pulls the plug.